MSI has announced two new high-resolution display notebooks, including the industry's first gaming notebook supporting 3K resolution. Both notebooks have a 15.6-inch display with a native resolution of 2880x1620.

The GT60 20D-261US is the gaming version of the notebook, while the GT60 20KWS-278US is the workstation version. Both machines have the same features with the only difference being the OS and graphics used. The gaming version of the notebook runs Windows 8 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M. The workstation version runs Windows 7 and uses an NVIDIA Quadro K3100M GPU.

Both versions of the notebook have a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD for storage. Both have an Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor, 16GB of RAM and integrated Blu-ray burners. The notebooks also have Killer E2200 networking and Killer N1202 Wi-Fi. The battery for the machines is a 9-cell unit and MSI integrates a 720p webcam on the front. Both machines. The notebooks also have SteelSeries backlit keyboards for working and gaming in the dark.

The dimensions of the notebooks are the same at 14.97" x 10.24" x 1.77" and both weigh 7.7 pounds.

One big difference between the two notebooks is price. The gaming version sells for $2,199.99, while the workstation version sells for $2,799.99.

It's high time above-1080p was offered in a gaming laptop so kudos there, but this looks like same GT60 chassis that has the single fan 80mm fan pulling double duty for the CPS and GPU. From experience with a GT60 and a 780m, this config runs at red-line temps and throttles periodically under stress.

If this screen was available in a Sager/Clevo or Alienware (or a revised MSI chassis), I'd be all over it.

That is similar performance to the R9 270X or GTX 760 when not throttled and both can kind of handle 1440p. However, in that small of a case with 47W TDP CPU and just DDR3L (not LPDDR3) the machine is going to overheat and throttle. The "One Touch" single fan cooling system is worrisome.

This is going to have hardly better performance than a $500 Steam Machine, especially when throttled. If you need games for the road, get a Steam machine, copy of Windows, and a portable USB monitor. $800 out the door, usable at your nearest outlet, kind of like this MSI with a $1200 discount.

That's the problem with the 780m in this system, it's basically the same as the desktop 760 if cooled properly. The 760 is good for max settings at 1080p and will be for a while but push much higher and you're going to hit the performance wall.

So, best case scenario you can't use the screen anyway. You are right, however, MSI tends to screw up the cooling on these so the situation could be even worse.

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